Integrated reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction systems for virus detection

The current study reports on an integrated microreverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) system for molecular diagnosis of microorganisms automatically. By using antibodies-conjugated superparamagnetic beads, the developed system can detect viruses with higher sensitivity and specificity when compared with traditional biological diagnosis methods using a ribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction kit. The target viruses were first captured by the conjugated antibodies on the magnetic beads, and were enriched using a magnetic field generated by microelectromagnets or permanent magnets. With this approach, the virus can be purified and concentrated first, then the virus RNA was extracted and transcripted to complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA), followed by a nucleic acid amplification process using a micro-RT-PCR module. The integrated microfluidic chip can perform the whole process automatically with the aid of integrated micropumps and microvalves. This study successfully performs the specific detection of two different types of viruses, Dengue virus serotype 2 and enterovirus (EV) 71 using this developed integrated system. Comparable to a large-scale apparatus, the integrated microsystem can perform mixing, incubation, purification, transportation, and nucleic acid amplification of virus, possibly making it a crucial platform for future diagnosis applications. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.